Billy Straight

Twelve-year-old Billy Straight - precocious, heartbreakingly perceptive, relentlessly moral - has fled the chaos and abuse of his life at home and is fighting to survive on L.A.'s meanest streets. All alone, Billy has fashioned a precarious existence for himself, using principled tricks to nourish his body and his mind. Late one night he watches from his hiding place as a man viciously butchers a woman. Billy becomes the center of terrifying attention - from the media, from violent bounty hunters, and from the murderer himself.

Flesh and Blood: Alex Delaware, Book 15

Perennial and acknowledged master of the psychological thriller Jonathan Kellerman has created a riveting and memorable Alex Delaware novel about a troubled and elusive young woman whose brutal murder forces the brilliant psychologist-detective to confront his own fallibility.

Twisted

Hollywood homicide detective Petra Connor has helped psychologist Alex Delaware crack tough cases in the past. And in Jonathan Kellerman's New York Times best seller Billy Straight, she took the lead in the desperate hunt for a teenage runaway stalked by a vengeful murderer. Now the complex and wryly compassionate Petra is once again at the center of the action, in a novel of cunning twists and page-turning suspense.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye: A Harry Bosch Novel, Book 21

Harry Bosch is California's newest private investigator. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have an office, and he's picky about who he works for, but it doesn't matter. His chops from 30 years with the LAPD speak for themselves. Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The reclusive billionaire has less than six months to live and a lifetime of regrets. He hires Bosch to find out whether he has an heir.

The Murderer's Daughter: A Novel

Brilliant, beautiful, and stunningly effective, psychologist Dr. Grace Blades has a special gift for treating troubled souls and healing tormented psyches - perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars. Only five years old when she witnessed her parents die in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her towering intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But as an adult, Grace's accomplished professional life vies with a covert, high-risk dark side, played out harrowingly. And when Grace's two worlds shockingly converge, her past returns with a vengeance.

Memory Man

Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good and left him with an improbable side effect - he can never forget anything.

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel, Book 9

The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large and very rare Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others - as Virgil is about to find out.

The Golem of Hollywood

Detective Jacob Lev wakes one morning, dazed and confused: He seems to have picked up a beautiful woman in a bar the night before, but he can't remember anything about the encounter, and before he knows it, she has gone. But this mystery pales in comparison to the one he's about to be called on to solve. Newly reassigned to a Special Projects squad he didn't even know existed, he's sent to a murder scene far up in the hills of Hollywood Division.

True Detectives: A Novel

In Jonathan Kellerman's gripping novels, the city of Los Angeles is as much a living, breathing character as the heroes and villains who roam its labyrinthine streets. Sunny on the surface but shadowy beneath, this world of privilege and pleasure has a dark core and a dangerous edge. In True Detectives, Kellerman skillfully brings his renowned gifts for breathless suspense and sharp psychological insight to a tale that resonates on every level and satisfies at every turn.

Bullseye

Snow blankets the avenues of Manhattan's exclusive Upper West Side. The storm is the perfect cover for a fashionable, highly trained team of lethal assassins as they prowl the streets, hunting their prey. But their first hit is simply target practice. Their next mission may very well turn the Cold War red hot once again.

The Bone Collector: The First Lincoln Rhyme Novel

In his most gripping thriller yet, Jeffery Deaver takes listeners on a terrifying ride into two ingenious minds...that of a physically challenged detective and the scheming killer he must stop. The detective was the former head of forensics at the NYPD, but is now a quadriplegic who can only exercise his mind. The killer is a man whose obsession with old New York helps him choose his next victim. Now, with the help of a beautiful young cop, this diabolical killer must be stopped before he can kill again!

Fool Me Once

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya's husband, Joe - who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to?

Home: Myron Bolitar Series, Book 11

A decade ago, kidnappers grabbed two boys from wealthy families and demanded ransom, then went silent. No trace of the boys ever surfaced. For 10 years their families have been left with nothing but painful memories and a quiet desperation for the day that has finally, miraculously arrived: Myron Bolitar and his friend Win believe they have located one of the boys, now a teenager. Where has he been for 10 years, and what does he know about the day, more than half a life ago, when he was taken?

Ricki says:"I have so missed Myron and Win and now they are back. Yeah"

The Whistler

Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined.

Chaos: A Scarpetta Novel

In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, 26-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning - except the weather is perfectly clear, with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center's director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental act of God. Her investigation becomes complicated when she begins receiving a flurry of bizarre poems from an anonymous cyberbully who calls himself Tailend Charlie.

Cross the Line: Alex Cross, Book 24

Shots ring out in the early morning hours in the suburbs of Washington, DC. When the smoke clears, a prominent police official lies dead, leaving the city's police force scrambling for answers. Under pressure from the mayor, Alex Cross steps into the leadership vacuum to crack the case. But before Cross can make any headway, a brutal crime wave sweeps across the region. The deadly scenes share only one common thread: The victims are all criminals.

Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel, Book 21

It's 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he's off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind. Two other men are in the classroom - an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there. Then they find out: A jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor - a Saudi courier seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown.

Private

Former Marine helicopter pilot Jack Morgan runs Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe. It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion. The secrets of the most influential men and women on the planet come to Jack daily - and his staff of investigators uses the world's most advanced forensic tools to make and break their cases.

Publisher's Summary

In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.

It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past.

This connection is only the beginning, a single link in a 40-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.

What the Critics Say

"An engrossing thriller.... this knockout of an entertainment is the kind of book which establishes a career in one stroke." (New York Newsday) "Suspenseful, neatly spun, fascinating." (Philadelphia Daily News) "Grab yourself a copy soon." (Los Angeles Times)

Ok as a mystery. The beginning was very good. I liked the way Alex investigated. Example, Alex needs to talk to a 7 year old girl who saw something. The girl’s mother is ignorant and poor and keeps the daughter on drugs to keep her quiet. Alex talks to the girl’s Doctor who prescribes the drugs. The Doctor won’t stop the drugs, he has a huge ego, he talks down to Alex. Alex befriends the girl. They go to the beach and a merry-go-round. There’s a whole mini story going on about the girl that is engaging and very interesting. It’s not just Alex going to the girl, asking questions and then leaving.

Alex talks to many people during the book, which are like mini stories, but the reader doesn’t get any good clues until the end when there is a tell-all. One bad guy is caught and reveals all the details. That was ok, but it’s not my preferred type of mystery.

In later sections of the book, my mind occasionally wandered, but not too bad.

The subject matter of raping children may bother some readers, but no details are shown.

I liked the narrator Alexander Adams. He does women nicely without sounding effeminate.

When I started listening to this book, I was delighted that, finally, someone with an analytical eye was creating interesting and believable characters; of course, he is a psychologist, so that figures. However, the descriptions of sex scenes just left me cold. What had started out as an interesting and engrossing mystery got diverted into cheap, gratuitous soft porn that added nothing to the story and only killed off the momentum of the mystery. Too bad, as the topic of child exploitation and abuse is such a horrific ongoing problem in the world and does not need to be ignored while we are subjected to graphic descriptions of the protagonist's own sexual encounters; an uncomfortable juxtaposition under the circumstances. Despite that, I MIGHT listen to another one of his books, but probably free from the library rather than paying for it. We'll see....

That's it! This book did it. I'm going to revise my audiobook buying habits. Just prior to this classic adventure with Dr. Alex and Milo, I'd bought -- and listened to -- four or five new books written and narrated by authors and narrators unknown to me. Most weren't all that bad, but neither were any of them all that good. Mediocrity reigned. I'd find my mind drifting off, have to backtrack, sometimes more than once. Occasionally near the end of the book a character's name would come up and I'd realize I had no idea at all who that was.

Then I reverted to "When the Bough Breaks" by this much loved author. Understand, I've read not only all the Alex Delaware books but all the "stand alones" too, "Billy Straight" and the best of them all, "Butcher's Theater". But I hadn't read "Bough" for a very long time -- decades, probably. I was betting I wouldn't remember much of the specifics of the plot.

Starting in, I was captivated from the very first minute. Good to be reminded of how Alex and Milo met, good to see Robin in the early stages of that relationship, good to remember when her workshop was in 'downtown' Venice, when she was just getting started. Loved the descriptions of Venice -- not that way anymore, but it was, back then.

I love this book -- I've loved them all. I love characters; I love the clinical insights scattered throughout, even though I know nothing of psychology. I really love the unbelievably accurate and fascinating LA-area scenery Kellerman describes so perfectly, much of which I'm familiar with myself. In this book, Dr. Alex takes a drive through that "other" Malibu, the upland hills, away from the sea, the one where snakes -- both those that crawl and those who walk upright -- thrive, where affluence isn't the order of the day, but drugs and danger lurk behind every turn. I think one time I was lost driving up in that area myself -- listening to the description again made me shiver. It's remote up there -- another world entirely, and Kellerman uses it to great advantage.

Bottom line: this was an enormously enjoyable book. I never lost concentration, not for one moment. It was well narrated, even though the narrator mispronounces "Ventura", over and over. (It's 'ven TUR a', from the Spanish. NOT 'ven CHUR a'. It has no connection to the English 'venture' -- more likely from San Buenaventura, one of the local holies of long ago.) Still, Alexander Adams' low key narration is just about perfect, smooth, pleasant and easy to listen to.

So? I've changed my strategy. From now on, I'm staying away from new books by unknown authors. I'm reverting to tried and true, golden oldies written by authors I know and love. I'll wait for the new authors to prove themselves.... and until then, I'll buy only books I already know I'll love. ... And now I'm hunting more by Jonathan Kellerman.

I found the number of people who were killed without repercussions unbelievable. However, the ending resolved all issues, was surprising and yet believable. Over all, a non taxing and enjoyable listen. Good narration.

I've been a big fan of Kellerman's for a while and have read all of his books except this one, which is the first in the series about Alex and Milo. This is not his best work, but very entertaining - once you get over the idea that an ordinary psychologist can suddenly turn into a ruthless and tough PI (with more luck than anyone could hope for). Although the story deals with gruesome subject matter, I really enjoyed the story.

The narrator must be one of the best I’ve heard thus far and does an excellent job.

For a first novel, When the Bough Breaks is pretty wonderful. And it is a great beginning to the Alex Delaware series, which now numbers 28 books and counting.

I like the way Kellerman writes. He does spend a lot of time in minute description, but somehow it's interesting, not boring, and he uses some descriptive metaphors and similes that seem unique and entertaining to me. He also spends a good deal of time describing both the emotional and physical aspects of his characters, and depicts most of those characters (except the bad guys) with empathy and compassion. Since his plots deal with psychological motivations, that seems appropriate. His plots are complex but easily followed. I do think the descriptions of Alex Delaware's own sexual encounters with his girlfriend are not very exciting.

The friendship and working relationship between Alex and Milo Sturgis, gay cop, is well drawn, and very believable.

The narration by Alexander Adams was excellent, with just the right ironic undertones that Kellerman put in Alex's words in certain passages. He handles male and female characters, with Latino, Southern and other accents, believably. And he is able to switch characters quickly in conversations. A difficult job well done.

When the Bough Breaks is a fairly standard non-police detective story. Our hero (Alex) is a psychologist who finds himself investigating a crime when he is brought in to question a child witness. The opening hour or so of the book is great, and the developing relationship between Alex and the child is well dealt with. The book is less good when it moves into the thick of the mystery. Somehow its all just too stereotypical. The bad guys are all bad in ways which you could guess the moment they were described (rich, poor, black, white, intelligent, ignorant and arrogant characters all act exactly to type).

It’s not a bad book. It's fast paced and never dull, but its not original and even if you have not read anything else by Kellerman, you will feel you have read When the Bough Breaks before.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Sophie Tomms

Co.Down, Northern Ireland

3/7/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Disliked the main character from the start"

I tried to keep going with this book but I disliked the main character more and more as the book continued. He is an arrogant know-it-all and I found myself rolling my eyes in disbelief at his irritating habits. Obviously many people enjoy these books I just couldn't get past the annoying Alex Delaware.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

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